<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The role of the diaries and memoirs in the process of the conscious self-reflection and their contribution to the emergence of modern individual personalities are well-known facts of the intellectual history. The present paper intends to analyze a special form of the creation of modern individual character; it is the self-creation of the writer as a conscious personality, often with a clearly formulated opinion about her/his own social role. There will be offered several examples from the 19th-century history of the Hungarian intelligentsia. This period is more or less identical with the modernization of the “cultural industry” in Hungary, dominated by the periodicals with their deadlines, fixed lengths of the articles, and professional editing houses on the one hand and the cultural nation building on the other. Concerning the possible social and cultural role of the intelligentsia, it is the moment of the birth of a new type, so-called public intellectual. I will focus on three written sources, a diary of a Calvinist student of theology, Péter (Litkei) Tóth, the memoirs of an influential public intellectual, Gusztáv Szontagh, and a belletristic printed diary of a young intellectual, János Asbóth.</abstract>

The role of the diaries and memoirs in the process of the conscious self-reflection and their contribution to the emergence of modern individual personalities are well-known facts of the intellectual history. The present paper intends to analyze a special form of the creation of modern individual character; it is the self-creation of the writer as a conscious personality, often with a clearly formulated opinion about her/his own social role. There will be offered several examples from the 19th-century history of the Hungarian intelligentsia. This period is more or less identical with the modernization of the “cultural industry” in Hungary, dominated by the periodicals with their deadlines, fixed lengths of the articles, and professional editing houses on the one hand and the cultural nation building on the other. Concerning the possible social and cultural role of the intelligentsia, it is the moment of the birth of a new type, so-called public intellectual. I will focus on three written sources, a diary of a Calvinist student of theology, Péter (Litkei) Tóth, the memoirs of an influential public intellectual, Gusztáv Szontagh, and a belletristic printed diary of a young intellectual, János Asbóth.

Authorial Self and Modernity as Reflected in Diaries and Memoirs. Three 19th-Century Hungarian Case Studies

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Social Analysis

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Authorial Self and Modernity as Reflected in Diaries and Memoirs. Three 19-Century Hungarian Case Studies

The role of the diaries and memoirs in the process of the conscious self-reflection and their contribution to the emergence of modern individual personalities...

Authorial Self and Modernity as Reflected in Diaries and Memoirs. Three 19^th-Century Hungarian Case Studies

Published Online: Aug 17, 2019

Page range: 85 - 97

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aussoc-2019-0006

Keywords
authorial self, modern culture, nation building, public intellectual

© 2019 Béla Mester, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Authorial Self and Modernity as Reflected in Diaries and Memoirs. Three 19th-Century Hungarian Case Studies

Published Online: Aug 17, 2019

Page range: 85 - 97

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aussoc-2019-0006

Keywordsauthorial self, modern culture, nation building, public intellectual

© 2019 Béla Mester, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Authorial Self and Modernity as Reflected in Diaries and Memoirs. Three 19^th-Century Hungarian Case Studies

Keywords
authorial self, modern culture, nation building, public intellectual